| Abstract: | St Bavo's abbey of Ghent reclaimed considerable land during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries on its estate at Weert, along the Scheldt in northeastern Flanders. Other lords, notably Jacques van Artevelde, also had interests in the polder, but their presence caused such hostility that two peasants with Weert connections were involved in the assassination of Artevelde's son in 1370. Poor soil and natural disasters forced St Bavo's to abandon the project in the late fourteenth century, after a final vigorous effort in the 1350s. The work of the monks and of the counts of Flanders had nonetheless separated Weert topographically from Flanders and diverted the Scheldt westward into its present course by the early fourteenth century. Despite a subsistence economy and a high incidence of poverty, conditions which might be expected to foster rapid turnover among the settlers, peasant society at Weert demonstrated remarkable stability. |
